As the universities and colleges are expected to be reopened for the existing students from September, the Tamil Nadu government has issued fresh and detailed guidelines to be followed by the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) for conducting physical classes.
The new guidelines was drafted in a meeting held between the Higher Education Department authorities and the district collectors. Accordingly, it is mandatory for the faculty and students, who will be coming to their respective HEIs, that they should have got at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Instructing the management of all the HEIs to prepare the list of their staff, who were vaccinated, Higher Education Department Deputy Director R Ulagi said "if the faculties and non-teaching staff have not got even a single shot of the vaccine, they would be put on compulsory leave".
The official said all the colleges were instructed to keep the list of the students, who were vaccinated, and the management should give the list to the authorities concerned at any given point in time.
"The students, who were studying in the HEIs, which were converted into COVID care centres will have online classes", she said adding "a decision would be taken in this regard in a meeting that would be held soon".
Stating that the management of the HEIs was also asked to get suggestions and feedback from the parents in connection to conduct physical classes, the official said "they were also instructed to contact health authorities to conduct vaccination camp in the college campus for those, who were not inculcated".
Pointing out that if any student is found to have COVID-19 symptoms, an RT-PCR test is to be conducted immediately, the official said "in addition, others who had in contact with the student with Coronavirus indications should also be tested accordingly".
The Higher Education Department also made it clear that differently-abled students will be exempted from coming to the colleges and they would continue to have online classes.
Other Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) include sanitizing all the classrooms, labs, and sports equipment one week before the reopening of HEIs, forming a team in the campus involving faculties to monitor whether all the SOPs were followed in the institutions and ensuring proper drinking water facilities for the students.
Conversations